


I would be a fool (to not say I love you)

by FlorBexter



Category: My Engineer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically, Humour, M/M, Romance, Thara realizes he's a dumbass, Tumblr Prompt, that's the fic, the word dumbass is used a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27439933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorBexter/pseuds/FlorBexter
Summary: Thara realized the extent of his actions as he was cleaning the gash on the left forearm of a fierce seven-year-old who had made herself the queen of the playground with a jump from an extremely high tree. The moment he had put antiseptic on the wound his brain had been flooded with an onslaught of memories of the volunteer camp and it had made click.
Relationships: Thara/Frong
Comments: 6
Kudos: 122





	I would be a fool (to not say I love you)

**Author's Note:**

> **For the Tumblr prompt:** "Thara realizing he's a dumbass and is head over heels for frong, but he thinks he's ruined his chance with the whole "nong" thing he said?"

Thara realized the extent of his actions as he was cleaning the gash on the left forearm of a fierce seven-year-old who had made herself the queen of the playground with a jump from an extremely high tree. The moment he had put antiseptic on the wound his brain had been flooded with an onslaught of memories of the volunteer camp and it had made _click_.

He froze and stared in horror at his hand, holding the little swab, and for fucks sake he really had said: _“We are bro’s, right?”_

He had said that. And for what it was worth he hadn’t meant it in the sense of being bro’s more in the sense of wanting to establish that they were close or that he considered them close and wow… he was a big dumbass.

He felt a scrutinizing gaze on him and almost jerked back when he made eye contact with his little patient.

Kids, especially girls, were something else. Thara was convinced that they held the answers to all the questions of the universe in their tiny bodies and that they knew it. Daonua, his little cousin, was the same with her endless questions and a gaze as if she just waited to be big enough to conquer everything. Which was fine with him, but he didn’t want them to know that he, at this moment in time, had a crisis because he was too dumb to get his phrasing right.

“There’s no need for stitches,” he said, and she actually frowned at him, not pleased with his decision. “But we are going to bandage it up.” It lessened the frown a little bit and he used the time to gather all the supplies to get a bit of order into his mind again.

Was this the reason why Frong avoided him?

Okay, it wasn’t like they had interacted a lot before the volunteering camp, their encounters had been coincidences, fate if one wanted to call it that, but they had exchanged numbers and Thara had even deleted all the pictures he had made of a shirtless Frong, with a heavy heart, but he was a gentleman and… he digressed.

He tried to concentrate on his task at hand, but his mind wandered.

How was one clearing up that kind of misunderstanding? Or was Frong on the same page? Did he think of them as platonic as well? What had his face looked like after Thara had said those stupid words? He couldn’t remember!

“All set,” he said and rolled away from the girl to write his treatment in her chart as he heard a short cough and he looked up to see the mother of the girl making little jerky head moves towards her daughter who inspected the bandage. He raised an eyebrow and her moves got jerkier and then he got it.

He cleared his throat and tried to look stern.

“I will prescribe a cream for you to apply on the wound, but the best thing to do is not to jump from high trees, okay?”

She rolled her eyes at him and scoffed.

Yeah… he had no problem with the rotation system of the med students, but he knew already why he wasn’t going to choose paediatrics. He was happier with brain scans.

The weary sigh the mother made before she ushered her daughter out of the room told him all about the success his little speech would have and when he wrote the last words of his report he had to smile.

And then he frowned. And put his head in his hands.

How could someone be such a dumbass? What had gone through his brain when he had said _‘We’re bros, right?’_? Nothing probably. More like: Smiley Frong, brain shut-off.

Before he could second-guess his decision, he grabbed his phone and messaged Duen.

_‘Do you have Frong’s schedule?’_

His cousin answered in seconds.

_‘Why should I have Frong’s schedule? He’s studying business management.’_

_‘Don’t you have access to the schedules via the university intranet? Look it up for me please.’_

This time it took some time for Duen to answer.

_‘Did you fall on your head? Since when did you graduate? You’re still a university student. You have access as well!’_

Thara stared at the message for a moment and then laid his head down on the desk. Maybe a parasite had found its way into his brain, eating away on his brain cells. He certainly caught it when he was at the volunteering camp.

He stepped out of the treatment room to check if he had any more patients for the day but all the other kids in the waiting room had appointments with resident doctors and he quickly hurried past the nurse station to not get caught and made to do paperwork. The lounge for the med students was a little room, furnished with comfy but old couches, a wobbly table in the middle and shelves overflowing with textbooks. They were allowed to rest in the big lounges, which were brighter and bigger and had a couple of computers but for years now this room was favoured by the students. Someone was wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping on the couch so Thara stepped past them to sit down in front of the old and battered computer in the corner. Thara had never seen it turned off and speculated that was on purpose because it may never be able to boot again. The screen flickered, the ventilator did voices that were concerning but other than that the internet connection was fine and Thara logged into the university’s intranet.

It was even easier to get the schedule of the second year BBM students than he thought. Which was why he stood in the front of the business faculty an hour later and made his way to the computer labs where one of Frong’s lessons should end in about ten minutes. And he was nervous. How was he going to approach this?

_‘Yo bro, just wanted to let you know I don’t technically think of us as bros.’?_

What kind of hole had he dug himself? But it was too late to change his mind and think about this a little while longer. The door to the computer room opened and a bunch of students walked out and because his mouth still hadn’t learned to keep shut during important events he shouted “Frong!” as he saw him walking from the room in the other direction. His body even betrayed him, and his arm was raised for a wave.

Definitely, a brain-eating worm.

Frong stopped and turned around and Thara could see how he froze the moment he saw Thara and the change on his face, only for a millisecond, from surprised to reserved told Thara a lot. For example, the radio silence from Frong since the camp wasn’t because of his busy schedule.

He saw how Frong’s body swayed back, ready to just run away from Thara so he quickly walked up to him.

“Hey,” he said, strangely out of breath.

“Hey,” Frong answered and folded his arms in front of his chest. Which, yes, wasn’t a good beginning to all of this Thara thought.

“Do you have a moment?”, he asked, because it seemed like he needed to be in his most polite form.

“Why?”, Frong asked and his raised eyebrow almost touched his hairline. “Do you want to take me for a ride on your bicycle again?”

Ouch... That kind of hurt.

“Actually, riding your bike regularly will improve your heart and circulatory system and that’s not why I’m here.”

Frong sighed. It was the same annoyed sigh he had given him when Thara had wanted to buy the flowers and he had not missed it. Frong’s defence mechanisms seemed to be all about cutting someone where it hurt.

“I have a moment, what is it?”

Thara didn’t touch Frong. He gestured towards a little corner away from the curious whisper of Frong’s classmates. Frong’s posture was stiff and cold and Thara just wanted the Frong back who would smile at him.

Frong’s arms were still crossed and if annoyance had a face it would be Frong’s.

“It came to my attention,” and maybe it shouldn’t sound like someone had walked into the treatment room and had hit him over the head with the information about him bro-zoning Frong, but he was already talking so he continued, “it came to my attention that I’m a bit of a dumbass.”

Frong’s other eyebrow found its way to his hairline but something like curiosity sparked in his eyes.

“A dumbass?”

“Yes, like a huge dumbass. Things were said that weren’t really things I wanted to say.”

And Thara knew that Frong knew what he was talking about. And Frong’s stance became a bit less hostile.

“I didn’t mean them. I mean, I meant them in the affectionate spirit I thought I got across, which looks like I didn’t.”

Frong squinted at him and Thara felt sweat travelling down the back of his neck. Had he ruined this?

“Affectionate spirit?”, Frong asked and Thara’s heart pounded so hard he felt it in his throat. There was something akin to a smile lurking in the corner of Frong’s mouth and Thara saw how he fought against it but Thara knew he had a foot in the door, and he was going to push.

“Yes. I didn’t think my word would be perceived…”

“No,” Frong interrupted him, “that’s not what is important. Tell me more about you being a dumbass.”

“Big dumbass,” Thara agreed quickly and this time the smile was there. Tiny and cautious but there.

**end.**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you had fun.


End file.
